(News Bulletin 247) – Eramet gained nearly 10% on Thursday morning on the Paris Stock Exchange, benefiting from a marked rebound after the sharp drop caused the day before by the announcement of a coup d’etat in Gabon, where the group operates the world’s first manganese mine.

On Wednesday, the title of the mineral extraction specialist fell in session to its lowest level in nearly a year, after a group of officers ousted newly re-elected President Ali Bongo from power.

The group nevertheless reassured the market last night by announcing the immediate restart of rail freight as well as the resumption of its manganese production activities.

In total, production at the Moanda mine will therefore only have been stopped for 24 hours and rail transport for 18 hours.

Investors also seem to want to put the consequences of this coup into perspective, judging that Gabon is just as dependent on Eramet as the group is on him.

At Oddo BHF, Maxime Kogge thus considers that the scenario of an eviction is “a priori unlikely”.

‘Failing this, the new government could seek to increase the share of wealth from ore’, however, tempers the analyst, who recalls that Eramet paid 142 million euros to Gabon last year in taxes, duties, royalties and dividends.

The Stifel teams, which display a buy recommendation on the title, even believe that this political upheaval could be good news for the group.

‘A limited shutdown of production could prove beneficial’, indicates the design office in a note released in the morning.

‘Eramet should be able to quickly make up for the shortfall in production, but could above all benefit from a rise in iron ore prices due to geopolitical risks’, underlines Stifel, who recalls that prices had soared more 20% at the beginning of the year following the landslide which had stopped its activity in January.

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